Q If I'm looking at a full moon,
a new moon, or just a sliver, is
everyone around the world see
ing the same phase I am?
A Yes. Phases of the moon
occur at the same time no
matter where an observer is
standing.
Q Does the Statue of Liberty
wear shoes?
A Lady Liberty wears 25-foot
long sandals, the equivalent of
a woman's shoe size 879.
Q Who first created a system
of longitude and latitude? Who
set it down as a standard?
Q When do wildebeests mi
grate through the Serengeti?
A The wildebeests of Africa's
Serengeti Plain travel in vast
herds from place to place as
the seasons change and food
supplies of grasses and other
plants are exhausted. They
move clockwise through
Serengeti National Park in
Tanzania and the Masai Mara
National Reserve in Kenya.
NATIONALGEOGRAPHICPHOTOGRAPHERSAMABELL
A Hipparchus (ca 190-120 B.c.),
a Greek astronomer and mathe
matician, is credited with being
the first to designate positions
on Earth using latitude and lon
gitude. He devised the system,
based on astronomical obser
vations, of superimposing an
imaginary grid onto the planet.
An 1884 international confer
ence in Washington, D.C .,
chose the line of longitude
passing through the Royal
Observatory in Greenwich,
England, as the prime meridian,
the point from which all other
meridians are calculated.
Send questions to Ask Us, National
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Washington, DC 20090-6095 or via
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NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC * OCTOBER 2001